Marilu Henner makes Celebrity Apprentice's final 5

Former Taxi star reaches final 5 in Trump reality show

Marilu Henner has multiple talents, actress, author and health expert—she puts all of them to use on All-Star Celebrity Apprentice.Photo: Adam Olszewski/NBC

Alex Strachan

Published: May 1, 2013 - 3:14 PM

Updated: May 2, 2013 - 1:34 PM

After Taxi, after Titanic, after being profiled for a 60 Minutes segment on highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) and after writing a brace of New York Times bestsellers, including Total Health Makeover, Healthy Kids: Make Them Eat Smart and Total Memory Makeover: Uncover Your Past, Take Charge of Your Future, Marilu Henner could be forgiven for thinking she had seen it all — and remembered every moment, in excruciating detail.

But then came Donald Trump and All-Star Celebrity Apprentice, and in a moment of reflection she realized she hadn’t seen it all after all, not even when actor Gary Busey, in a recent Apprentice, climbed down on all fours and began barking like a dog.

The Celebrity Apprentice

As the 13th season — lucky 13 — of the long-running reality-TV competition program winds toward its May 19 live finale, Henner is down to the wire. She’s reached the final five, on behalf of her chosen charity, the Alzheimer’s Association.

“I became involved with them recently because I’m part of their research on memory recall,” she explained.

Henner’s remaining competition for the title includes Penn Jillette, Trace Adkins, Lil Jon and Henner’s close friend, Lisa Rinna.

Henner has made a number of friendships on Celebrity Apprentice along the way, some likely — Rinna, Adkins — and some less likely, such as the ejected Omarosa and Stephen Baldwin.

Win or lose, Henner already has enough memories from Celebrity Apprentice to last a lifetime, and in this case the cliché fits. Because of her one-in-a-million ability to recall even the smallest details of her life with eerie clarity, she can remember every awkward moment, every ill-considered word, every imagined slight and every heated confrontation in the Apprentice boardroom. For Henner, her second turn on Celebrity Apprentice really is déjà vu all over again.

She couldn’t talk much about The Apprentice, she said over breakfast in Los Angeles earlier this year. And then, once she started talking, she couldn’t stop. She’s seen a lot, after all — everything had been filmed up to that point, except the May 19 finale, which will be broadcast live — and remembered it all. Donald John Trump, Sr., aka The Donald, may seem intimidating for some people, but to Henner he’s just Mr. Trump: business magnate, real estate tycoon and the guy in the big chair in the Apprentice boardroom.

“He’s a real character, first of all,” Henner said. “I don’t know what he is really like as a boss, obviously. He’s very different to me, though, through my eyes, than the way I think a lot of people see him. He’s a lot of fun, actually. He definitely speaks off-the-cuff. We know that. He never follows a script. They give him a couple of bullet points, and he figures things out from there.”

The Celebrity Apprentice

The Celebrity Apprentice is first-and-foremost a TV competition designed to boost ratings and sell ads, but it’s also about raising funds for charity. The competitors are willing to do things they wouldn’t do otherwise, and pitch products they wouldn’t think twice about otherwise. That’s just part of the deal, Henner says. Henner first appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2008. In the very first task, the teams had to sell hotdogs.

“I’ve been a vegetarian since 1979,” Henner said, smiling ruefully at the memory.

“August 15th,” she said, without missing a beat. “It was a Wednesday. Okay? Seriously, that’s really true. So this is the thing: I haven’t had a hotdog in years. So I sold water, for, like, five thousand dollars a bottle. You’re playing a game. You do what you have to do.”

By now, Henner has authored the thinking woman’s guide to getting ahead on The Apprentice, in her mind, already.

It’s not about tearing the other person down, she insists, but playing your own game.

The Celebrity Apprentice

“It depends who you are, what kind of person you are,” she said. “This is how I am. If I do anything, I’m trying to do my personal best. I’m not trying to mess up anybody else. Because that’s going to take me off my game. I prefer to think of myself as somebody who’s very focused, very determined, very organized.”

This season is different from her first turn on The Apprentice, Henner said, in that the fundraising tasks are not always about who has the biggest Rolodex. This season was not about who could call in markers at will.

“There were fewer — I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this — straight fundraising tasks than they’ve ever had on the show. This really was more about your creativity, your ability and how fast you can think on your feet.”

“There is so much that happens on the show that nobody sees. They might design the story so that the audience gets to see a certain beat, but you don’t see the strength of a Joan Rivers. It is a television show, first of all. It is a competition. You have a lot of strong personalities. You have people who are fighting for their charities. Everybody is trying their personal best. We’re working under very difficult circumstances, which you don’t see. A film crew follows you everywhere you go. You can’t work on any of the tasks at home.

The Celebrity Apprentice

“It is a television show, first of all. It is a competition. You have a lot of strong personalities. You have people who are fighting for their charities. Everybody is trying their personal best. We’re working under very difficult circumstances, which you don’t see. A film crew follows you everywhere you go. You can’t work on any of the tasks at home.

“You’re not just fighting for your charity, or your career, or because you don’t want to look like a fool. You’re also thinking to yourself, constantly, ‘I could do this so much better if I didn’t have to follow all these rules.’”

Celebrity Apprentice may be about fundraising for charity, but the money shot at the end of each weekly episode is what happens in the boardroom.

“The boardroom is crazy!” Henner said. “It’s probably ten times longer than what you see. (Mr. Trump) goes through each person. He talks to all of us: ‘Who do you think should be fired? Who do you think is the weakest player?’ It’s extremely stressful. It’s wild.

“It’s my favourite part of the whole show.”

The Celebrity Apprentice

Win or lose, Henner has already learned a lot from her second run on Celebrity Apprentice.

“You learn a lot about yourself, doing this,” Henner said, suddenly pensive. “You learn what your strengths are, your weaknesses. It’s like your personality is being put in a laboratory, and all of a sudden you’re working in these extreme conditions. You’re experimenting in the laboratory, and you’re the experiment.

At least, with The Apprentice, it’s for a worthy cause. No, not The Donald. Charity. Henner hasn’t raised too much money for the Alzheimer’s Association just yet, but she’s hopeful. She’s reached the final five after all.